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Over 160 Saudi activists arrested since February - report


    JEDDAH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has arrested over 160 activists since February, Human Rights Watch said in a report this week, as the absolute monarchy attempts to insulate itself from the mass uprisings that have swept the Arab world.

    A report by the U.S.-based rights group called for the Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef to immediately release what it called peaceful dissidents, and said their arrests violated international human rights law.

    Human Rights Watch researcher, Christoph Wilcke, criticised what he said was the silence of the United States and European Union on the arrest of peaceful dissidents.

    "Silence when more than 160 peaceful dissidents are locked up should not be an option for Brussels or Washington ... As the list of Saudi political prisoners grows longer, the silence of the U.S. and the EU becomes more deafening," Wilcke said.

    The Sunni Muslim monarchy of Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and major U.S. ally, does not tolerate any form of dissent. It has not seen the kind of mass uprisings other countries in the region have over the past few months.

    But minority Shi'ite Muslims in the oil-producing Eastern Province have staged smaller demonstrations over the past few months.

    Their call for the release of prisoners as well as an end to religious discrimination has led to the arrest of some activists by the Saudi authorities.

    On Sunday, Saudi authorities arrested Shi'ite Muslim intellectual al-Saeed al-Majid, two days after protests in the Eastern Province.

    (Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Sophie Hares)